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International relations specialist and key Gorbachev advisor Vadim Zagladin made this report to the Soviet Politburo in early April 1989. In it, Zagladin recounts his conversation with Jan Pudlak, a high-ranking Czechoslovak official, about the situation in Pudlak's country. Zagladin's main impressions from the discussion include the inflexibility of the ruling elite, their inability to….

On January 5, 1968, Alexander Dubček came to power in Communist Czechoslovakia, and began a series of reforms, later called the "Prague Spring." His new policies centered around the idea that Communism could be more liberal and responsive to the people, and achieved by increasing freedom of the press, emphasizing consumer goods, and the suggesting a multi-party government instead of a….

Yugoslavia did not have tremendous success as a unified political entity. Tensions among the various nationalities inside Yugoslavia's border always threatened to undermine the control of the Communists. In order to address these longstanding and threatening tensions, in 1971, the Yugoslavian Communist Party prepared a set of sweeping reforms to create semi-autonomous regions to provide some….